What are Enterprise Architects Trying to Accomplish?

If you have an existing or a planned Enterprise Architecture effort, how many people understand its full scope? Is it important to communicate aspects of the EA effort to people outside the core group? Do you have multiple different audiences that should be aware of what's happening? If so, how is that communication going to take place?

These types of questions are important because they help shape the enterprise architecture solution.

Often what you'll find is that communication gaps exist because context is what's missing. Context is what gives information a natural setting so that it intuitively makes sense. Architects need to provide the right context for their vision. Context makes it so that information has meaning and value because its logic is easily understood. If you're an application developer, the architecture information you need is different than if you're a project manager. Similarly, data and database administrators need different information, as do the business people who ultimately are responsible for all enterprise endeavors.

My company, Flashmap Systems, supports frameworks that provide context. Our tools are used to catalog and present strategy and knowledge. Our goal is to help architects make their information as easy to understand and use as possible. Not only that, but also make it accessible and useful for as many different audiences as possible. In other words, capturing information is only part of the end result of architecture. The payoff comes from the value of its usage.